Recommended Reading on the Writer's Craft

Easily the best book on sentence style currently—or for that matter probably ever—in print. This book is indispensable for the serious student of the sentence. Not only does it contain much wisdom about writing sentences, but it also contains the best collection of striking individual sentences ever assembled.

A must read for anyone interested in prose style, in the teaching of writing, or just in the writing in the world around us. This is Lanham’s argument that the stress on clarity in American writing instruction has largely worked to banish pleasure from writing.

The pioneering introduction to the ways in which electyronic textuality—writing made possible by computers—changes our understanding of writing in ways no less sweeping than did the invention of the printing press.

The essay has been rapidly evolving in recent years and now takes forms many will have trouble recognizing as essays. This forward-looking collection shows where the essay is going, not just where it has been.